Painting Open Air 2025

Wildpainting course in Rauland

14 - 20 July, 2025

BOOK	Join us in a wildpainting course on the foothills of Norwegian mountains with teacher Jan van Boeckel The course will be taught in English

At the side of Lake Totak in the Telemark region of Norway, there is a special rural art academy, Raulandsakademiet. Each summer, it has weeklong art and craft courses, and participants eat and stay overnight at the same premises. It makes it an ideal location for having a wildpainting course, in this varied landscape where hills start to turn into mountains. In all directions there are beautiful vistas and hiking trails, and characteristic log houses, with ornaments carved out of wood.

Lake Totak is almost on the border of Hardangervidda National Park in southern Norway. Here we can touch the silence, the crisp air, and let this experience find its expression in the colours that you put on the canvas.

What will happen in this immersive painting course, which will be held here for the second time? Again, we will try to push the boundaries of painting in response to a dramatic landscape like this. “When I paint a landscape,” said Paul Cézanne, “it is thinking itself through me. I become its consciousness!” It is in that spirit of being present, of allowing ourselves to be moved by these natural places in which we find ourselves, that our artmaking will take place.
With this course we are inspired by the Norwegian tradition of friluftsliv which, literally would translate to: ‘open-air-life’. To Norwegians, it’s a whole philosophy, a way of life. In its core it is about celebrating time outdoors. Playwright Henrik Ibsen used the term in the 1850s to describe the value of spending time in remote locations for spiritual and physical wellbeing. And this is exactly what wildpainting in the big wide open is all about!
We will be painting as much as possible outside, in the vicinity of Raulandsakademiet. In case of unfavourable weather conditions we will work inside our studio at the academy.

An excursion to Smørklepp Art Museum in Vinje is part of the program. Here, we will draw inspiration from the paintings made by the famous Norwegian artist Henrik Sørensen (1882-1962), who for two years was a student of Matisse. The valley of Smørklepp in Vinje made a lasting impression on him, and a large collection of his paintings is exhibited at Vinje Gallery situated in this impressive landscape.

Henrik Sørensen believed that colours conveyed strong feelings such as divinity, love, hatred, disgust, immorality, and even contempt. He said for instance of the colour scarlet red: “It is the most powerful of all colours, it is the colour of the rose, of innocence, grace, and lightness. Scarlet and crayfish red, above all, are Norwegian colours … Red, together with a slight touch of yellow, brings forth the most violent and triumphant of colours: orange and red lead – the colours of children and of wild animals." And of green he noted: "Pure green is a pleasant colour, its calmness is almost felt as a state of being. Green gives us a peacefulness and stillness in a positive sense. If green is shifted towards yellow, a cheerful and a life-giving source of enthusiasm arises, the spring colour of leaves.”

Painting by Henrik Sørensen

Wildpainting is about connecting to free nature through art, engaging all of one’s senses!
This wildpainting course is open to people with different levels of experience in artmaking, from near beginners through to practising artists and will be held from Monday 14 July until Sunday 20 July, 2025.

Practical

Painting Course

We recommend arriving latest on Monday morning 14 July; the course will start that day at 15.15pm. The closing session will be on Sunday 20 July before lunch. The art sessions will be between 9.00 am and 16.00 pm (with a break for lunch), and occasionally we'll have an evening session as well.

The course will be taught by Jan van Boeckel, a Dutch artist and professional art teacher. He will help you get started, encourage you along the way, and invite you to paint the landscape in new, uncommon, and refreshing ways! Composition, paint application, colour, and use of tone will be explored. The course will be in English, though the teacher does speak Swedish and some Norwegian. All participants will be offered intensive personal tutorials.

Lodging & food

During this course you can stay overnight at Raulandsakademiet. Costs of both food & lodging are NOK 1595 per day for course participants. Each day 3 meals will be served: breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are 49 rooms, single rooms, twin rooms and some family rooms - all of them have their own shower and toilet.

Course fee

The course fee is NOK 9660 (which includes all art materials; food and lodging come on top of that). Bookings, both for the course and for accommodation & food, can be made through Raulandsakademiet, or you can send an email to Signe Årdalen: [email protected]

Location

Our course atelier is Raulandsakademiet
Akademiet 2
N-3864 Rauland

Contact:
Signe Årdalen
Tel. +47 35 07 32 92
[email protected]

Travel options:
- Bus from Oslo to Åmot Vinje Kro (https://www.nor-way.no/en/routes/haukeliekspressen/), 3 h and 45 min and then a switch to a smaller bus from Åmot Vinje Kro to Universitet USN Rauland (https://entur.no/), 20 min;
- Flight to Oslo or Bergen;
- Car.

Comments by former participants

It was a good, successful course for me. I liked the good pedagogic planning, the exercises, and the social life. Jan is a very good teacher, engaged, well-prepared and he gave very relevant comments to our painting. Thank you for these marvellous days.

Kjetil

Jan van Boeckel is a warm, engaging art teacher. His outstanding teaching methods, his painting skills and his passion for art and art history are very inspiring. He attends to each student's unique potential - no one will feel overlooked under Jan's caring guidance. In addition, he has the exceptional habit to join in with the students and paint for himself along with them. Thank you for a wonderful course!
Ida

Good atmosphere. "Högt i tak", as we say in Sweden. The food - made painting even better!! Nice reviewing sessions.
Karin

Painting Open Air
6-day course in Rauland, Norway
14-20 July, 2025
NOK 9660
including:
- art materials